The Secret Life of Abe Lincoln

Cult Figure of the Years 2001-2002

Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth president of the United
States, possibly has the most instantly recognizable face from
American history. His name appears everywhere--children's toys, cars,
cities, streets-- even the first cross-country highway (built in
1913) was named Lincoln Highway. His image appears on the penny and
the $5 bill, on Mount Rushmore, and on countless thousands of
silhouettes in schools and banks during the month of February. Nearly
every American can recite the first line of the Gettysburg Address
("Four score and seven years ago...") but would be hard-pressed to
come up with anything said by George Washington.

Few men (and fewer presidents) can match the stories of his life,
from walking 20 miles to return a borrowed book to freeing the
slaves, to being the president during the Civil War to his martyrdom
at the hands of John Wilkes Booth. He is, in effect, the "super
president," even sharing with "supermodels" the disease called
Marfan's syndrome. He is the perfect American cult figure.

Many of his accomplishments are the stuff of legend, but how many
people know of his minor ones? His muscular body from years of
chopping wood and building his own log cabins, his flirtation with
cross-dressing, his life as a dancer... these are the things which
were not talked about in the innocent days of the 1800s when a
president's private life was considered his own. Here, for the first
time, our international team of artists and researchers has unearthed
evidence of the private side of Abe Lincoln.